TOPICS: PHAGE DISCOVERY LAB

Catalog description

Phage Discovery follows the curriculum based research initiatives from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's (HHMI) undergraduate research program SEA-PHAGES (Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science). This research education initiative course involves students learning and applying a variety of microbiology, immunology, and molecular biology techniques. Students isolate, purify, and characterize novel bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) from soil samples that they collect at the beginning of the semester. Students will potentially contribute the data on phages that they discover to the growing database at HHMI's Phage Archive. This course involves 4 hours of in-person meetings each week (1 lecture and 3 lab). Prerequisites: BIOL 110 and BIOL 110L.